The First English Empire

Power and Identities in the British Isles 1093-1343

By: R. R. Davies

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Hardcover | 5 October 2000

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Hardcover
224 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
23.39 x 15.6 x 1.42

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The future of the United Kingdom is an increasingly open question. This book traces the issue's roots to the Middle Ages, when English power and control came to extend to the whole of the British Isles. By 1300 it looked as if Edward I was in control of virtually the whole of the British Isles. Ireland, Scotland, and Wales had, in different degrees, been subjugated to his authority; contemporaries were even comparing him to King Arthur. This was the culmination of a remarkable English advance into the outer zones of the British Isles in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The advance was not only a matter of military power, political control, and governmental and legal institutions; it also involved extensive colonization and the absorption of these outer zones into the economic and cultural orbit of an England-dominated world. What remained to be seen was how stable (especially in Scotland and Ireland) this English 'empire' would be; how far the northern and western parts of
the British Isles could be absorbed in an English-centered polity and society; and to what extent the early and self-confident development of English identity would determine the relationships between England and the rest of the British Isles. The answers to those questions would be shaped by the past of the country that was England; the answers would also cast their shadow over the future of the British Isles for centuries to come.

Industry Reviews

`This is a book to which one can return again and again for new ideas and inspiration.' Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, vol. 29, no. 2 `we are treated to a succession of persuasive challenges to traditional historiographical perspectives, and of tepting invitations to look again at the medieval history of these islands.' Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, vol. 29, no. 2 `another brilliant book ... the quality of thought and exposition here cannot be over-stated.' Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History, vol. 29, no. 2 `stimulating and satisfying book that will prompt much useful debate' History, vol. 86, no. 284 `a thoughtful analysis of Anglo-Norman kingship and its insatiably predatory aristocracy in their competition with native princes and with each other for control of great swaths of the British Isles.' R.R.Davies, Times Literary Supplement, Friday 16th March 2001. `A lively account of English Medieval History ... an exciting read.' Church Times, Gillian Evans.

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